What’s It All Mean? A study of words part 2 by Toi Thomas

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Have you ever heard the saying, “There’s power in a name?” I could write a whole series about the many ways that saying could be taken literally and figuratively, but that’s not our focus for today. Today is part 2 of my current series on words and their meanings, to which I’ll be focusing on Day 2 of a previous series. Go back and read part 1 to learn more about #write31days.

The word of the day is onomastics and the subject of today is me, Toinette Thomas.

Read my story here

Onomastics is the study of names, their origins, and how they are formed within a given language. It is my belief that U.S. English (which is different from British English, the original) is a melting pot, much like the country itself. The U.S. was once part of England, and England itself has had many different rulers and occupied many different lands. Both nations and their dialect of English have been affected by outside influences.

The English language, whether British or U.S., is a hodgepodge of influences from other languages. My name is a perfect example of this. Toinette seems to be derived from Antoinette, but it’s a misnomer. My mother wanted to name me Toynet, but was told it didn’t look proper. My mom and everyone in my family calls me Toynet even though that’s not how my name is spelled. Antoinette is the feminine form of the French name, Antonie, which means flourishing while the English derivative Anthony means praiseworthy.

To quote directly from my original post, “Thomas means twin and has both Hebrew and Dutch origins intermingled with Biblical inspiration. Thomas is considered a good, strong name among the Christian community and a powerful name in many other cultures.” To read the full original post and learn a little something about my middle name, go here.
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My next post in this series will be August 8 and I’ll be talking about nomenclature.

Interested in another educational/inquisitive post? Try The Man Behind the Mug Shot by Nicola McDonagh.

Find out more about me, my work, and my inspiration at the following links:

Amazon | Goodreads | The ToiBox of Words | YouTube | See a list of my other posts here.

#wordsmatter, #ILoveWords, #namesmatter
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